Stewper Sunday

What kicks off Fall better than soup or stew burbling on the stove? Lots of soups or stews cooking on the stove!
We are slowly developing a family tradition of "Stewper Sunday." It started as "Soup-er" Sunday but we were making stews too, so we had to change the name.

1. First we pick a date that works for most of the family. Trying to coordinate four household schedules can be tricky!
2. Then we decide what soups and stews we want to make.
3. Compiling a list of ingredients, we keep track of the costs so we all split the tab evenly. We are making multiple batches of each recipe, and it pays to buy in bulk.
4. Cook and have fun!
5. Package in meal-size portions for freezing
6. Split up the goodies so everyone takes some home

It is fantastic because you have a variety of hearty meals in the freezer, ready to thaw and enjoy.

So what was on the menu?
- Mom's famous chili (she always makes this since it is such a hit!)
- Dad's famous pea soup (he always makes this too, I actually think it's pretty good and I don't like pea soup!)
- Marinara sauce (from the recipe before...)
- White Bean and Bacon stew (new recipe to try)
- Acorn Squash Soup (another new recipe to try)

I would share with you Mom's chili recipe, but her literal recipe is "keep adding things until it smells right". Helpful Mom, thanks. This is as close as we have gotten without video taping her, and measuring things before she puts them in the pot.

Mom's Classic Chili

1.5 lb hamburger

med - small onion cubed (diced)

med. green pepper cubed (diced)

1/2 can tomato paste

32 oz can crushed tomato

16 oz can diced tomato

1 can pinto beans

2 cans of LIGHT Red Kidney beans

1 bay leaf

2 tsp. brown sugar

1 tbls salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbls chili powder (it's probably more like 4 Tbs since she keeps adding "till it smells right")

- Brown hamburger.  Drain

- In sauce pan and olive oil saute onion and green pepper.  

- Add tomato paste --stir 

- Add all the rest of the ingredients.  

- Burble on low simmer for several hours.    

- Check taste for spicing and adjust. If still too acidic add more sugar.

I would share the pea soup recipe, but Dad does the same kind of thing... adding whatever veggies (carrots, onion, etc.) happen to be in the fridge. I can tell you that his secret ingredient is Lawry's seasoned salt, and lots of it!

The White Bean and Bacon recipe was inspired by this one here, but we tweaked a few things. It ended up tasting even better than I expected!

Slow Cooker Ham & White Beans
1 lb package dried northern beans (ended up using canned so it would go quicker)
3/4 lb bacon (fried up to a crisp and chopped up before adding to crock pot)
2/3 cup diced yellow onion (or 2 tsp onion powder)
6 cups water (didn't need this much since we were using canned)
salt & pepper to taste (don't need too much salt due to the bacon)

1. Throw it all in a crock pot
2. Set on low for 8 hours
3. Serve up with your favorite cornbread
yum yum yum

Acorn Squash
The Acorn Squash soup was completely new for us. We love butternut squash soup in restaurants, but have never made anything like it before. I had grown all these beautiful acorn squash in my garden, so I wanted to try it out. Since you can't really go wrong with Food Network, we tried out Guy Fieri's recipe, here.

The cayenne pepper gives it just a tiny hint of heat, and although we cut down on the white pepper for the second batch, it was still seriously tasty! We also got to play with my immersion blender for the first time.
One thing we did differently is omit the cream... for now. Cream doesn't freeze very well (it separates), so we made the rest of the recipe as-is, then froze it. Now when we re-heat it, we will add in the cream to round out the soup.

Now our freezer is stocked with 8 servings of marinara sauce, 2 servings of pea soup, 4 servings of chili, 4 servings of squash soup, and 4 servings of bean/bacon soup. And since we all split the cost, we made all that for $35! What a deal!